CEBU, Philippines – The 27 barangays in Mandaue City are no longer allowed to throw their waste directly to a private sanitary landfill in Barangay Pulog, Consolacion town.
This was after it was found out that the city has been paying P1.5 million a month for the mixed garbage being thrown at the landfill.
In a press conference, Engr. Ricardo "Gaga" Mendoza, head of the city's Solid Waste Management and at the same time the City Environmental and Natural Resources Officer said the city has now decided to make the newly opened Umapad landfill as a transfer station.
Mendoza said when the 27 barangays directly threw their garbage at the sanitary landfill in Barangay Pulog two years ago following the closure of the Umapad dumpsite in 2010, the city then failed to monitor the volume of garbage.
The barangays have been throwing in Barangay Pulog without even segregating their waste, Mendoza added.
With this, the city has now decided to make the Umapad sanitary landfill as a transfer station of garbage being thrown by the barangays to make sure that only residual waste is thrown in Pulog.
Also, since the garbage coming from the different barangays has been piling up now at the Umapad landfill, strict segregation is now being implemented in the barangay level.
Only segregated garbage are allowed in Umapad. The personnel there will still have to do their final sorting so the city can just pay a minimal fee to Consolacion landfill wherein a tipping fee of P700 is being asked per ton of garbage.
"Imagine sa 12 tons nga basura nga nadala sa transfer station nato, mahimo na lang unyang three tons kon ang city na ang molabay," Mendoza said.
He added that there is also an ongoing construction of a Material Recovery Facility at the Umapad landfill because whatever plastic that can be taken during the final sorting can still be sold as there are companies engaged in the conversion of wastes to fuel.
It was also learned from Mendoza that there are around 450 tons of waste collected in the city daily.
Meanwhile, the decision that the city will be the one to throw the waste coming from the barangays to the landfill in Barangay Pulog was welcomed by the barangays.
Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) president Ernie Manatad said they were happy with the decision because it can minimize the expenses of personnel and fuel charges in the barangay.
He said for Barangay Subangdaku alone, their dumptruck spends at least eight times a day just to throw their waste to the private sanitary landfill in Pulog.